we'll have to get a side by side. >> we should have a side by side on that. jack writes, i'm up waiting for my second open heart surgery. thanks for the distraction. >> jack, we're thinking about you. good luck in there, man. >> christopher, wondering if we can expect a follow to the literary masterpieces that are "american freak show" and "motive." >> thank you for calling those masterpieces. by the way, there might be something else coming. "morning joe" starts right now. . the president is fond of saying that the tide of war is receding. and i want to believe him as much as anyone else. i no e the president hopes for a safer, freer, and more prosperous middle east. i share this hope, but hope is not a strategy. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to "morning joe." it's tuesday, october 9th.

with us onset, we have mike barnicle. >> thank you. >> and president for the council on foreign relations, richard haass, i'm glad they let you in. we wouldn't have a show otherwise. and joe's here. >> i'm here. we have some new polls out. >> yes, we do. >> a big movement, and the polls, let's talk first about what i think is going to be one of the great, great series that we've had in a while. and that's the red sox and the orioles -- i mean the yankees and the orioles. oh, wait, i'm sorry. the red sox right now. >> are you trying to alienate everybody? >> so we've got two big yankee fans here. but the yankees and the orioles. you've got, you know, you've got the empire, the great team, plus -- against the upstarts. this one's going to go a while. >> can't go more than five games. >> well, that's a while. if you're a yankees fan. i get nothing from richard

haass, so willie. richard, you suck. >> no. >> willie, i'm excited about this stuff. >> go to the ichiro play. >> this is just a great david versus goliath contest. >> i'd say this is a yankee fan, it's hard not to love the orioles and their story. what they've done this year. these are usually the kinds of teams that go away after the all-star. they were relentless. >> we kept waiting. we waited for them to go away in june and july. i cannot believe when i looked up in august and they were there. >> down to the last day of the season, essentially. and last night, a big win in a tight game, the yankees sent andy pettitte out there, the guy they've counted on in the last 15 years in the playoffs. didn't pitch terribly. but again, the orioles hung in there, the last few outs of the game. the good news is, we have alex rodriguez locked up for five more years. >> by the way, willie, seriously, you can't say it too much, alex rodriguez is

terrible. why he is still batting third is a mystery to every yankee fan. and you also have some players that are great during the years. players that i love that just disair peer in the playoffs for the yankees. >> nick swisher. >> nick's 1 for 35 with runners in scoring position. i love the guy. even as a red sox fan, how do you not love nick swisher? but some of these guys, mike, disappear during the playoffs. they just disappear. >> that's like medicare, though, it's going to be expensive for years to come. >> you can fix medicare, you can't fix -- you don't know how scared i am of medicare. >> all that said, the yankees did get a split and they have three games at home. like their chances to win 2 out of 3 from home. but the orioles are tough. >> no doubt about it. can we talk about one team quickly here and then move on. >> sure. >> the texas rangers, one of the great teams, i think, in

baseball this year. first place until the last game of the season. and then they were let down in the most horrific way by their superstar josh hamilton. mike barnicle, i've never seen a player look like he cared less about the outcome of a playoff game. than josh hamilton who i've got to believe is -- i'm not suggesting anything, but this guy is not in a good place right now. josh hamilton and cost himself millions of dollars. >> he did do that. he did do that. >> horrible. >> he hit the free agent market after the world series was over. that team, texas rangers, of course, they finished so closely to winning the world series title for two years in a row. and this year, they went into almost total collapse. hamilton appears to have no plate discipline when he's up, swings at anything, very lackadaisical from that missed fly ball in one of the games. >> and doesn't give a damn. in the interviews afterward,

he's like, what you going to do? >> everyone is familiar with the personal demons he's battled iffer years. whether that's had an impact on him, who knows. but he has lost himself potentially. >> you can't watch him, weillil without saying something's up with this guy because he was such a great story. just a couple of years ago, a great story, battled alcoholism, become the superstar, and now something's wrong. >> he's a free agent and it's telling who is not pursuing him. you would think a guy like that with those kind of numbers, the red sox are not, the yankees probably are not. >> who would bet on this guy right now? >> you know, joe, we've seen in the sports world -- >> hold on. >> no, he won't. >> you don't know. >> he won't. but anybody who puts up, you know, 40 home runs a year and knocks in 120, some owner out there will put the money on the table. >> for less money than they would have. >> less money than they would

have. >> great playoffs, the jets still suck, that's sad. tim tebow is going to be playing soon. >> you guys get it all out. >> we'll talk about that in sports, but right now, mika, a possible shifting of the political plates underneath the two candidates. >> yes, we do, and then we have a foreign policy statement we actually should talk about. >> doesn't that sound like something you'd hear on -- >> i'm going to give you little keys. front page of the financial times, u.s. presidential candidate mitt romney said that the obama administration's policies had left the middle east a more dangerous place than it was four years ago. i can't wait to ask you about that, richard. >> fair enough. >> that speech was fascinating. >> new polls were taken after the debate. what did they show? >> i will get to it as soon as you zip it. >> whoa. >> the race is tightening with four weeks to go, a new pew research center survey shows romney leading obama 49% to 45% in a national head-to-head match-up among likely voters.

those most committed to participating in the november election. there is good news for the romney campaign in michigan, a state where president obama was leading by ten points last month according to the detroit free press. after the debate, the same poll has the president's lead down to three points, well within the margin of error. perhaps the biggest gain for the romney campaign comes from that pew survey, which shows the republican candidate has made huge gains with women voters now tied with the president 47% to 47%. just a month ago, the president had a 56-38 advantage with women voters. what's going on? >> let's stop there, mika, you tell me what's going on. keep that up for a while. mitt romney getting absolutely pounded, the gender gap, 20 points almost, fatal for any republican candidate, and now it's tied 47-47, you are a mom, you are a wife, you are a working woman. you tell me. explain those numbers. why did they tighten up? >> well, that was taken after the debate? >> after the debate.

>> well, i think that speaks for itself, i think. and women or men like mitt romney's performance. whether they agree with him or not, i think it made a big difference. more of a difference than perhaps members of the obama campaign predicted. >> you look also at the michigan numbers, mike barnicle, michigan, i've never put michigan or pennsylvania as a swing state because it hasn't been. even as mitt romney ends up losing that state, and i would guess the president would eke it out by a point or so. you have mitt romney down ten points a month ago, after the debate, he's down, it's within the margin of error. this is supposed to be the state where the grand experiment of the auto bailout took place. and there's no way mitt romney could win that state. basically tied right now. and again, whether michigan ends up in his cone or not, this shows a huge thing taking place. we've got to assume it's taking

place in florida, north carolina, virginia. i'd be shocked if mitt romney wasn't ahead in a lot of these swing states by the time these polls come out. >> and it forces the obama campaign to allocate resources to places like michigan, which they probably thought they had pretty faithfully in hand. but look, the poll numbers on women are really interesting. i have always believed that most of us in the news business very often underestimate the impact of the economy on women as a voting group. >> yeah. always talking about abortion and a lot of other social issues. because, you know what? it's the same thing too with a lot of gay voters that will come up to me and go, listen, i care about gay marriage. you know what i care about more? getting a job. >> bingo. >> my partner getting a job. we can't forget that in this sort of hot house where we talk about all of these social issues that the media love talking about. >> you're making an argument right now that women will get --

more women will get jobs under mitt romney. >> no, no, no -- >> that's not the case. >> no, health care, rising cost of health care, rising cost of groceries, the rising cost of just living. women go to work and put gas in their cars in the morning. >> right. >> it's ridiculous. >> i really would like to finish my point because it's important that nobody misunderstands me. my point was, mika, that women care about jobs first for the most part, most women do, most women care more about putting food on their kids' tables. if they're single moms getting a good job so they can afford to send their children to even community college or votech or an ivy league school. we in the media, we try to overanalyze this too much, and at the end of the day, for most voters, whether you're talking about women or men or gay voters, or straight voters, they share the same concerns for the most part. >> yes, they do.

thank you. yes, they do. i'm serious. i don't disagree. >> it sounded like you did. >> no, i -- >> all thyi'm trying to do is g along here. >> -- perhaps even in control of the economy. and it, to me, these numbers are surprising and concerning. because if it is a result of the debate, it's a -- to me in my opinion, it responds to a stylistic win. >> but you understand, though, mika, women as well as other voters -- i know you don't want to say it. because you were saying the same thing to me. >> what? >> barack obama looked like a weak leader. >> all right. if you're going to make the argument for women and what -- >> no, all voters. >> the president has done more for women than mitt romney will ever do if he had two terms. >> one is that the issues that might have appealed on the social side of the slate, obama never talked about the supreme

court, he never talked about todd akin. you can go down the list. the issues that might have, in a sense, rolled out to the fore were essentially missing in action. and second of all, to the extent it was simply a debate on economic policy and political performance, clearly governor romney won. >> right. >> what it also shows, by the way, all these people who said debates don't matter. >> they just might. we'll see. >> willie, we can't underline the point too much here. we always try to sort -- my wife this summer, her republican friends were very concerned about the radical direction that the republican party seemed to be taking in the primaries. and same thing with gay voters. i'm not saying the gay voters don't care about marriage equality, but we oversimplify it so much. and all americans, i mean, want this economy to be turned

around. and if president obama looks weak in the debate as he did, as most people say, that's going to have an impact. i said it last week, a rising tide lifts all boats. and i said before the debate, if he had a great performance, a rising tide would lift all boats. and we are seeing here that a rising tide has lifted all boats. i said that three times just now. >> the next time -- >> i hope i did it. a rising tide does lift all boats. go ahead, willie. >> but that is a huge leap. 18 points off one debate performance is almost not to be believed it's so big. this was a group that everyone had written up. latinos and women, mitt romney, mitt romney has no chance to get those. he closed 18 points in one debate. i'd be surprised. that's a huge leap. >> i never thought it was like 10 or 11 points, i don't think it's tied now either. i think it's maybe four or five. again, looking at all the polls. i think this may be an outlier on the women. i think you're right. >> there were a couple of other

quick things in that poll. first of all, on the michigan, that's remarkable because a month ago, mitt romney, crossroads, everybody else pulled out of michigan. there were no ads running there. if he closed the gap like that, he did it on his own. also 78% of independents in that pew survey thought mitt romney won the debate. and then the enthusiasm for mitt romney, a campaign that a lot of people said, joe you know, and inside republican circles, this is a loser, we're moving on to 2016. now 67% of republicans say they're enthusiastic about their candidate, that's up 15 points from the last survey. >> mika, you brought this up this week. >> i think it's really bad. >> even before the debate, you brought up what chuck todd was talking about this weekend on "meet the press." >> that's before the debate. they're engaged. >> now it's really -- and chuck todd is now saying that by looking at the nbc numbers and other numbers that the enthusiasm gap is going to cause

problems for democrats down unless the president kicks it into gear. i do want to say, though, just as a caveat, let's look at the gallup daily tracking poll. chuck always says don't look at these things specifically. i'm sorry, it's fun to. it shows a different story. it shows the president actually up by five points. that's among registered voters. those are not people as likely to vote. the likely voters are the pew. and this actually makes chuck's point and your point, mika. the more likely you are to vote, at least today, the more likely you are to vote for mitt romney. the more you expand that out -- because again, for people just tuning in to this election, you've got likely voters who are the most likely to vote, you've got registered voters in the middle, and then you have holes of "americans," and that's basically dragging anybody off the street and asking them a

question. >> so today mitt romney rallied voters in iowa, a day after delivering what his campaign called a major foreign policy address speaking to an audience of cadets at the virginia military institute. he hit on a wide range of hot-button issues from the civil war in syria to the obama administration shifting response to the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. the issue of iran's foreign policy was woven throughout much of the speech. it's become a corner stone with the republican candidate suggesting he would take a harder line to ensure tehran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. take a listen. >> i'll put the leaders of iran on notice that the united states and our friends and allies will prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. i will not hesitate to impose new sanctions on iran and will tighten the sanctions we currently have. i'll restore the permanent presence of aircraft carrier task forces in the eastern

mediterranean and the gulf. and i'll work with israel to increase our military assistance and coordination. for the sake of peace, we must make clear to iran through actions, not just words, that their nuclear pursuit will not be tolerated. >> richard haass, where do we begin? i feel he was making a false accusation about the present policy that the president is placing on iran and trying to turn the argument around. a policy that quite frankly he was describing the same thing, was he not? that we're already doing? >> with one important exception. when he talks about preventing iran from getting nuclear capabilities, that's slightly different. the president talks about our policy is to prevent iran from getting nuclear weapons. mitt romney talked about iran not getting a nuclear weapon capability. he's suggesting he would draw the quote unquote red line somewhere south of that. it does suggest that a slightly

less tolerance for iran getting close to nuclear weapons. >> i have to admit it sounded like we weren't doing much, we meaning the united states right now, the obama administration. we've, i think, imposed extremely stiff sanctions that appear, according to informations coming out of iran, even from the value of the currency are working. >> that was an area i thought he was unfair. on the president's policy on sanctions are quite extraordinary and it's more than skeptics would've thought. i've written several books and edited them. we have gone farther with international sanctions than anybody thought possible. and they're kicking in. they're kicking in economically, and it's been falling like a rock. no pun intended. what we don't know, what impact that will have on the iranian nuclear program. >> what else can be done? i agree with mitt romney, i'm glad it's a center piece, iran i've always believed is the most dangerous country in the world. it's been the epicenter of

international terrorism since 1979. they only understand brute force. and i'm not necessarily talking military brute force. but they sniff out weakness and exploit it like no other country on the planet. what else can a president romney do? >> not much more on sanctions. greater international -- more clandestine things, reported about in the book. >> would a closer alliance with israel -- because we hear about it a lot. if the iranians understood we had a president that stood shoulder to shoulder with israel. >> i don't think that would change things. i would test the iranians, against the backdrop of real economic bleeding. i would make them a diplomatic offer and say, look, here's what we're prepared to live with, here's what we're going to allow you to have, and make it public. and if they turned it down, they would have to explain to their own people why they would turn down a chance -- >> hasn't this president tried

that? >> quietly. >> through back channels. >> do it publicly. the public in iran is unhappy. you see what they're doing in the markets. china closed down any currency market. inflation is skyrocketing in iran. put more pressure on them publicly, align yourself more with the opposition. but at the end of the day, joe. >> what can we get from the iranians? we can't trust the iranians. they have made fools out of every american president since ronald reagan in 1986. there are no moderates in iran. >> well, you basically say, here's what you can have. and by the way, we need inspections and intrusive inspections. unless you give us the confidence that you're not cheating, we're not going to accept the deal. you put it on the table and say if you accept such a deal, you'll get real economic help. if you don't, you're going to continue to feel the pinch. >> richard, let me ask you on october 9th, 2012, i've been asking this question for two years. there are, of course, moderates in iran. half of the country is weste

westernized, highly educated. and there are moderates, but they don't run the country. on october 9th, 2012, who runs iran? do we still not know? >> in the intelligence business, iran is right up there with north korea as probably the hardest targets to really understand. >> certainly not ahmadinejad. >> no. supreme leader. >> it's the supreme leader along with -- >> the mullulahs. >> aren't they intimidated by the revolutionary guard? >> you've got the people financially essential to the regime. several power centers. but -- >> the supreme leader is first. and the answer is we don't really know. >> if we don't know that, the strategy here also psychological? and at what point do you start doing this publicly? isn't that a second step? start doing this publicly and aligning with the opposition

publicly? isn't that to an extent potentially a destructive strategy if you're a little hand fisted about it? >> i would do it rather than later because the guys are feeling the heat. at the end of the day, mika, they've got to care more about their revolution and staying in power than they do about their nuclear program. we want to give them a starker choice and also do it for ourselves. if one day we're going to have to make a fateful choice about whether to possibly use military force, we only want to do that after we know we've put on the table a fair and reasonable offer, that we could live with it, they accepted it, if they won't accept it, that's clarifying to us. if you're going to make the decisions, you only want to do it after you've tried -- >> exhausted every single alternative. >> absolutely. >> coming up, nbc news political director chuck todd, political analyst richard wolfe, and molly ringwald. but first, bill karins with a

check on the forecast. good morning, mika, on this tuesday. once again, greeted by chilly air, clouds and a few showers out there this morning. the east coast and the northern plains. the two kind of coolest, cloudiest spots in the country. you see the showers riding up 95, d.c. heading toward baltimore and philadelphia and the new york city area, few sprinkles. i do not expect a lot of airport delays out of this. there's going to be a cloudy, murky, damp tuesday. we'll have sunshine, though, back through the great lakes, ohio valley should be nice along with all areas of the southern half of the country. a reinforcing shot of cold air coming down from canada. not what we wanted. barely warmed up from the last shot of cold air. look at the windchills this morning from denver northward up through the dakotas and mthd. a very cold tuesday start for you. back in the 80s, dallas, new orleans, all areas of the deep south enjoying what should be a great tuesday. it's a quiet weather week, no big storms heading across the

country either. enjoy the nice quiet weather pattern while it lasts. you're watching "morning joe." ♪

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26 past the hour. time now to take a look at the morning papers. okay. the "new york times," the imf is lowering the forecast for global growth once again. calling the risk of a slowdown quote alarmingly high. global growth for 2012 is expected to be at 3.3%. that's down from june's projections. the european zone is at an 80% risk of a recession. >> stunning, europe slow, united states growing at half the his or the rate. more than anything, china slowing down, india slowing down, no engine in the world economy right now. >> you know who the engine's

going to be? i'm really -- and i mean this. i'm excited that the united states of america, we're going to take care of our debt issue and you look at the opportunities in energy, not only natural gas, and what we're finding in the plain states in oil. three years from now -- >> we could be. >> three years from now, the united states is going to be up here again and all the people saying that china is going to overtake us and india and brazil, they're going to look as foolish as they did when they said japan was going to do it in 1989. that is going to happen. >> the others are not going to overtake us. the question is if we can get out of our own way. and that is the question. >> if washington gets out of our way, unbelievable. the "wall street journal," goldman sachs is one of president obama's biggest supporters in 2008. now spurred by what the company calls business and personal attacks, the companies become a top supporter of mitt romney in the republican party. according to an analysis by the paper, no other companies'

employees have switched sides so sharply. "the gazette," a report from pew cites more christians that no longer identify themselves as protestants and 5% have no religious affiliation. >> a guy that not only doesn't believe in god, he doesn't believe in santa claus, the easter bunny, he slanders the tooth fairy, he believes little kittens and daffodils are bad things. >> okay. >> for america's future. jim vandehei with politico. >> saw him kicking a puppy at dupont circle yesterday. >> he did. actually, it was on the hill, so he must have kicked two puppies yesterday. jim. >> how is that for an introduction? >> and a good morning to all of you. >> we welcome our guest jim.

we love you. let's talk about your big piece this morning. you and mike allen written one a lot of people talking about today. the romney family rebellion, tell us what happened. >> yeah, i think it's a pretty interesting look in what's happened behind the scenes in the romney campaign over the last two to three weeks and what you've seen is really the family asserting itself with mitt romney. particularly ann romney and tagg romney. softening his image, projecting a more moderate image, particularly in the debate and since then. and i think the victim in all of this would be stewart stevens, the chief strategist from the beginning and several campaign officials have told us he's been fenced in. basically doing ads, not doing a lot of the grand strategy. that's been turned over to people like tagg romney and ed galespie with the campaign, brought in a couple months ago, lots of ties to the bush world. better at this stuff.

>> it's great. who knows mitt romney better than the family? >> and it's great, you know, there doesn't have to be a loser here. we'll find out afterwards exactly what's happened to stewart and everybody else, but who knows mitt romney better than mitt and tagg and the family who know him and love him? we said, he's a great guy, great father, great man, and i actually -- >> better candidate. >> he's a much better candidate today. and i think him tacking a little bit to the middle, at least rhetorically, i think that helped him a lot. >> they thought he'd been mishandled up until a couple of weeks ago. how had this manifested itself up until that debate. is he really different out on the stump? >> yeah, i mean, that's where i have to inject a couple notes of caution. one, he's not been a good candidate in totality. he's had a good week. before this most republicans thought he was running a pretty bad campaign.

and until two weeks ago, he rejected his own family's advice to soften his image. he was with stewart stevens and thought he had to keep all the focus on barack obama. so he is a reluctant participant in this new strategy. and it forces him to improvise. and throughout his political career, when he improvises, he often veers into a danger zone. the question is, can he successfully improvise and sort of be himself. i know i'll get tons of angry e-mails. i think what you've seen the last week is more where he really would be when it comes to governing. i think he's had to do a lot of things. he's had to pretend in a way that's damaged his image and his credibility. he's had to pretend to get conservatives excited. now conservatives are so frustrated with the campaign they'll take anything, they'll even take a moderate mitt so he has extreme flexibility for the next couple of weeks. and he has to seize the moment. >> well, i've got to tell you, i was excited, mika, during the debate, two things i saw. one, him focusing on how he was

bipartisan, how he got things done in massachusetts, how it made me meet with democratic leaders every monday. i loved that. americans love that. they're hungry for that and i'm so glad he did it. that's one. and two, i loved it, i said it yesterday, i will say it today, i loved him saying i will not cut a tax that will raise the national deficit. now, everybody can obsess on his 87 -- and obsess on what he said during the primaries. but that sent a message to me, jim vandehei. >> of the philosophy. >> that that philosophy, a moderate philosophy, a conservative with a small "c" philosophy, that i'm not going to be a crazy ideologue, i'm not going to slash first and ask questions later. i'm mindful that we live in a global -- on a global stage. where investors are scared to death that the u.s. is going to sink deeper in debt. he's striking, though, he's

striking the right tone for me. i know he's striking the right tone now for a lot of americans. i don't think you can overstate the importance of that new tone. >> well, and if he were to win, and i still think it's a big if, he would have a lot of flexibility, i think, to do what you were talking about three or four minutes ago on the show, which is do a global deal that's positions the united states to really sort of take advantage of this global slowdown. we have a piece up today where we have jamie dimon, other people on the record saying, you know what? we will accept higher taxes if that's what it takes to get a deal. it's so important to get deficits under control, to get the tax code reformed even if it's reformed slightly. and to get government better balanced. and it's clear there's going to be a ton of support to do it. mitt romney has his 200-day plan they've been working on, very much includes something like simpson/bowles in the first 100 days to get the economy back on track. and that'll be a big debate.

>> i just said don't raise the deficit. >> okay. can i tell you one other thing mike allen sent me, willie? >> what? >> yesterday. as criticism -- >> i don't want to see it. >> sugary sodas intensifies, coke, pepsi, and dr. pepper are rolling out new vending machines that will put calorie counts right at your fingertips. it's a move in the right direction. thank you, mike allen for sending that to me. we need to get that in the show some time today, we also need to talk about the campaign -- >> did somebody put -- >> that's getting fascinating. >> joe, stop blustering. >> thanks, jim. when we come back, the jets try to survive a showdown with the texans on monday night football. he had a chance, one drive to win it all and turn around the season. >> tebow. >> show you how he did. >> tebow. >> orioles/yankees, full

highlights when we come back.

all right. time for some sports. on monday night football. >> no. >> the new york jets coming off

a 34-0 shutout loss to the 49ers last week. had to try to turn it around against the undefeated houston texans. good throw and catch, sanchez to cumberland, 27 yards. foster, big night for him, 13 yards, 14-7 texans right there. 80-yard drive, at the half point and down, but on second and five would like to get some points here. >> oh, the horror. >> intercepted by bryce, 86 yards to the nine, that sets up a field goal, up ten at the half. >> oh. >> first quarter, the jets get a little help from special teams joe mcknight on the 100-yard kickoff return, he scored to keep this game close. 20-14 at that point. beautiful run by mcknight. >> beautiful. >> two minutes left, jets have a chance, down six, they can drive here. touchdown wins the game, sanchez

throws behind the receiver, and interception, texans win 23-7. sanchez another tough night, below 50% for the fourth straight game. over the four games, 44% completion rate, three touchdowns and five picks. >> willie, tebow time, at this stage, you have to go back to 1975 to find a jets quarterback with as low of a percentage rate. one of joe namath's last year. >> i know rex ryan has to come up publicly and say he's our guy, we support him, but the numbers don't lie. >> you've got to go to tebow. and not only bad numbers, tebow had bad numbers last year for denver, but he was a leader, he was a quarterback. he was the captain. i mean, you know what? tebow's not going to have better numbers, but he'll get better results. we all like mark sanchez. i like him. >> he's nice. >> but it's time. they've got to try something. >> he's playing with no confidence at all. >> i know. >> it snowballs. >> this is a bad -- he's set up to fail. no doubt about it.

you bring tebow in, he's set up to fail. but at the same time, you've got to do it. >> you've got to try. >> got to try. >> how about them birds? >> let's watch the orioles beat the yankees last night. it can be that way. i can be generous. >> you're all class. >> yankees going up two games to none in the alds, scoreless in the first. watch this, i don't even call it a slide. ichiro scores from first. he looks like he's going to be out by ten feet. comes in, he dances once, dances twice, and gets the right hand in. and he's safe. believe it or not, that's the right call. the tag was never applied. ichiro somehow gets in. >> oh, my lord. >> 1-0, yankees. andy pettitte in the third, chris davis gives the orioles a 2-1 lead at that stage, same score in the sixth, mark reynolds down single, cano, 3-1,

orioles, pettitte, three hits, last chance for yankees, 3-2 in the ninth, a-rod is the tieing run. >> who would you rather have? >> jeter, cano, granderson -- >> willie, that guy can't catch anymore, can he? >> and granderson eight. 3-2, orioles win the first playoff win in 15 years. now we go back to the bronx with three consecutive games. >> going to be amazing. >> it's going to be a good weekend in the bronx. cardinals avoid going 2-0 at home. watch this catch. by john jay of the cardinals. >> oh! >> he does. >> make the play right up against it. how about that? the bottom of the sixth, carlos beltran, crushing nats' pitching yesterday. 8-3 cardinals, then in the

eighth inning, beltran going to do it again, a shot off the scaffolding in left center, cardinals win 12-4. postseason game for beltran, that ties for second all time behind only babe ruth. >> you know, you think the nats are going to win that going back, but god, the cardinals always rise up in the playoffs every year, man. >> we've been there and the beltran signing, maybe the best free agent signing last year. >> and you've got two teams tonight going for sweeps. reds going to sweep the giants and tigers going to sweep the a's. up next, mika's must-read opinion pages. ♪

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i'm barack obama and approve this message. >> and the evil genius who towered over them. and the one man who has the guts to speak his name. big bird. >> big bird. >> it's me, big bird. >> big, yellow, a menace to our economy, mitt romney knows it's not wall street you have to worry about, it's "sesame street." mitt romney, taking on our enemies no matter where they nest. >> that is the definition of too clever by ha. >> we should tell people, that's from the obama campaign. >> that's not an snl ad. >> it's a joke. >> no. >> having a little fun. >> but now's not the time to do that when you have your own base up in arms. >> maybe a more serious commercial saying now's not the time to be talking about big bird. >> i guess, wow.

okay. >> because -- whatever gets you through the night. >> that's what he did. >> it's all right. by the way, today, i quoted john lennon. today would have been john lennon's 72nd birthday. october 9th. he was born on october 9th, 1940. >> wow. >> every time i see that date come up, of course, that and december 8th. yeah, 72, john lennon would have been 72. >> yeah. all right. let's go to massachusetts. we're going to do must-read opinion page, but we're going to get this news story in. new polling from the u.s. senate race in massachusetts finds elizabeth warren holding a slight lead, 50% to 45% over incumbent senator scott brown. the race has taken a harsher tone in recent weeks since we're talking about ads. as the campaign comes to a close. senator brown has been critical of warren's legal work in an asbestos case. calling her a hypocrite for representing travelers insurance in a 2009 lawsuit while she currently campaigned as a

consumer advocate. but warren is fighting the claims, releasing this new ad defending her involvement with the case. >> i'm elizabeth warren and i approve this message. >> my father was diagnosed with -- >> my husband, sam jackson. >> my husband was 57. >> my father suffered greatly at the end because he suffocated to death. >> it was devastating. >> scott brown's not telling the truth. >> elizabeth did go to fight for us. >> scott brown has never been there for us. he's trying to use our suffering to help himself. he ought to be ashamed. >> warren and brown face off again tomorrow night for the first of four scheduled debates. seems like scott brown is grasping. >> scott brown is, i've said it, he's a great candidate, perfect candidate in many ways for massachusetts as a republican. but, mike, he keeps -- you know, it reminds me of george bush in 1988 when he went to a flag

factory. you know, the big joke was a flag factory too far where you're like okay, we get it, michael dukakis and the pledge. this indian thing worked for him, this native-american thing worked for him for a short while. but he stayed on it. almost as if he has nothing else to attack her on and now this asbestos thing? he looks a little desperate right now. >> well, he probably is a little desperate right now. i'm not talking about the poll numbers, talking about the fact that president obama who is going to hammer mitt romney in his home state beat him by 20 points, that's a mathematical tough hill to climb. -- >> unless barack obama has a couple more bad debates. >> massachusetts won't matter. >> well, the margin does matter though. >> scott brown, clearly, apparently has not taken enough advantage of, is people sense that perhaps we should have one republican in washington.

let's just send one republican in washington just to balance the scales, to keep people honest. this, you know, talking about elizabeth warren's indian heritage or whatever it is. >> come on. >> it doesn't register to people. it does not register. >> that's a quick hit and then move on. but willie, he's stayed on it forever. >> well, mike answered the question. we're not on the ground there. i wonder if people in the state care about the asbestos case or about her heritage. >> i haven't heard anyone come up to me say what about that asbestos case? not one person. jobs, bipartisanship. >> can i say, speaking of the red sox, i'm watching the orioles/yankees highlights and i'm thinking i haven't seen a real baseball game since august of last year. i watched the red sox, and that's it. i haven't watched a real baseball game since august of last year. they haven't been playing baseball. >> you've got to watch the

birds. you've got to watch the birds. >> i just -- i've got to cheer for the orioles and the nats. also, though, man, i love the a's. >> oh, i love to see them take it to five. they can. it could be a beltway world series. >> a beltway world series. coming up, we're going to talk -- >> mika, you're a maclaine girl. a beltway world series. >> okay. whatever. richard wolffe and eugene robinson straight ahead on "morning joe." capella university understands rough economic times have led to an increase in clinical depression. drug and alcohol abuse is up. and those dealing with grief don't have access to the

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romney stopped at the restaurant in florida yesterday. he was posing for a group photo with the staff when one of the employees decided to help clean him up. he's already creating new jobs. at first he's like, oh, this is nice, then he's like, oh, okay. wait a minute now. and then he uses his hand to tap. okay. now we're going to push that out of the frame. welcome back to "morning joe." a live look at the white house. as the sun comes up, time to wake up, everyone. mike barnicle and richard haass

are still with us, msnbc.com's richard wolffe. and chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports," andrea mitchell. good to have you all onboard. >> let's start with the pew poll, the national pew poll. richard, there is a swing. it's 45 among likely voters before the debate. now we suspect that's going to be much larger. we can go on to the michigan poll shows we've gone from a ten-point obama lead to now three-point obama lead. it's in the margin of error. >> yep. >> and then the biggest shift. and i -- i still think this is an outlier. i think it's much closer. but the gender gap now has been completely erased, 47% to 47%. i didn't think he was down 18 points last month. i don't think it's tied this

month. but it's probably three, four, five points. this race has tightened. >> sure. >> in a serious way. >> this is one poll. and it's hard to poll when things are moving. >> right. things are moving right now. >> so that one, other people can say others. there were plenty of moments like this. in fact, this exact moment was just like this because john kerry came out like, you know, like a cannon ball in that first debate. polls started to move all over the place and then they settled down for the second and the third. and the truth is that, you know, this was always going to be a close race. it's tight at the moment. it'll end up being a two or three-point margin at the end. that is half the margin of error. so this race has definitely tightened, but i was with those kerry people on election day when they were walking around that hotel. literally with open bottles of champagne. >> that hurts.

>> it's not even -- >> i'm president kerry -- i don't know how you get past that. i was on the set in new york at 5:00 and all the exit polls came out and everybody onset was saying john kerry is the next president of the united states. >> oh, don't ever do that! >> you just -- >> that is going up to a pitcher, going into the ninth inning, i don't know if you knew that right now, you're throwing a perfect game right now. i mean, goodness, gracious. mika, again, the thing you always look for in these things because it's a snapshot today. richard's exactly right. but i can tell you as a practitioner, i like at thousands of polls, unscientific, any type of poll. anything i can get my hands on i can look at, you always look at trends. that's all that matters right now. the trend lines are going mitt romney's way. we're in the middle of a couple of debates and that could change. but for now, the dynamic in this race has rally changed over the

last debate and barack obama needs to turn it around. >> and mitt romney is focusing on ohio in a big way. andrea mitchell, before we get to mitt romney's foreign policy speech yesterday which we want to focus on, are you surprised at all by the changes in these numbers? >> not all that surprised. i am surprised by the extent of the change in the women's numbers in michigan. >> i am. >> but i talked to a congresswoman in colorado, the morning after and she as a strong obama supporter was really disappointed that he had not raised women's issues in that debate. to say what you pointed out earlier, mika, he did not project the kind of likability to any of the audience, including women, of course. so she was disappointed. i asked what she thought had happened and she said, well, i don't know, he didn't ask me for advice. so a lot of his supporters, including strong women, members of congress were not at all happy about not going after what they perceived to be mitt

romney's vulnerabilities. >> right. >> and it seems as though the trend is going in mitt romney's direction as joe just said. and how ironic is it that the only way to break that momentum right now, the fastest way would be a strong debate performance by someone, joe biden. >> joe biden from time to time has been pushed to the sidelines by the white house staff, the president respects joe biden, but the president's staff does not. they can deny it, they can push back all they want, it's the reality. and how ironic is it they now have to depend on joe biden to break up this momentum. >> he always comes in to save the day, doesn't he? >> i don't know exactly that. but also speaking of colorado, there's another poll, i talked to a democratic leader in colorado this past weekend who said the polls have shifted dramatically. actually six points. they shifted six points in colorado. you're going to see that a lot in the swing states. it's volatile. >> with andrea richard here, let's get to the foreign policy

speech. yesterday, mitt romney was speaking to an audience of cadets at the virginia military institute. he hit on a wide range of hot-button issues in the arab world from the civil war in syria to the administration's shifting response to the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. the issue of iran's nuclear program was in the speech. suggesting he would take a harder line to ensure tehran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. >> i'll put the leaders of iran on notice that the united states and our friends and allies will prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. i will not hesitate to impose new sanctions on iran and will tighten the sanctions we currently have. i'll restore the permanent presence of aircraft carrier task forces in both the eastern mediterranean and the gulf. and i'll work with israel to increase our military assistance

and coordination for the sake of peace, we must make clear to iran through actions, not just words, that their nuclear pursuit will not be tolerated. >> on the middle east peace process yesterday, romney sounded decidedly more optimistic than he did earlier this year during that secretly recorded private fundraiser. >> i'll recommit america to the goal of a democratic, prosperous, palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with the jewish state of israel. >> and i say there's no way. and so what you do is you move and hope for some degree of stability. we have a potentially volatile

situation, but we sort of live with it. and we hope that ultimately -- >> the reason we played the tape was obviously it's an old story. but it shows, again, movement, we're talking about movement on taxes, to a more moderate course. we're talking about him sitting down with democrats, and, you know, every monday morning and talking to democrats. and now we have, i think, pretty substantial movement on israel, as well, right? to the center. all of these moves seem to be to the center. >> absolutely. this was, again, to talk about a prosperous palestinian state, living side-by-side with israel. this is mainstream, this is a position as someone governing rather than campaigning, so represents a reahossuring signa someone preparing to be president in a way that wouldn't threaten several decades of american foreign policy. >> move to a center, andrea? >> in tone and in substance. this is a pivot that many of us expected after the primary

campaign. and we're seeing it later than you might have expected. but that certainly was what you heard in the first debate. and michael grisham who is twice in two cycles helped prepare george w. bush for debate was fairly critical on our program before going in and has a column today saying that the tone and the substance of what he presented was much more acceptable to the mainstream of america. and i think that's why you're seeing a movement in the polls whether the numbers are correct or not. we're seeing a trend. >> you know, richard, it seems, even up until the day before the first debate, mitt romney was still running a primary. >> right. >> -- election campaign. and a lot of people, a lot of republicans wondering as well as democrats, why couldn't he make that shift? richard nixon said it famously, when you're primary, you're under the right, the general, under the center. >> makes no sense. honestly, makes no sense and opens him up to the big vulnerability. he had him at last debate.

for instance, one of your favorite subjects on simpson/bowles. he goes out and says, you, mr. president, should've embraced simpson/bowles. and one of the rare moments where the president said, why didn't you take simpson/bowles, and he said, wait, hold on a second. which mitt romney is the one that shows up to the next debate? which is the one that shows up the day after the election? and that's where the president has to take this conversation. is it the mitt romney on foreign policy who said when iran captured that drone it was a reason to go to war? or is it the much more moderated guy who said let's just carry on doing what we're doing. iran could hardly have any type of sanctions. the economy is in freefall right now. what can you get your arms around with this candidate? makes him a very difficult debate opponent. but in that moment, in that debate when he's pivoting and flip-flopping and all over the place, you've got to confront him, otherwise you are not stepping up -- >> the problem is, let's just say with barack obama isn't the

problem he's not a great debater and he's not nimble on his feet. because you are a lot of other people could stand across the stage from mitt romney and say that. >> it's easy to do it from the sidelines. >> the president is not a good debater. >> there was a moment, similar moment in the 2007 debate, hillary clinton was struggling on driver's licenses, the direct question of driver's licenses -- it was every candidate on stage showed how she was taking all sides, both sides of that issue, not actually, at the time, candidate obama. >> richard haass. >> one other thing about the speech where i thought governor romney broke ground was on syria. critical of the obama administration of doing essentially very little, more than 20,000 syrians have lost their lives and he's specifically talking about upping the army of the opposition and giving them one way or the other. sort of stuff they need of the shoot down syrian planes or

tanks. this would be a major step forward and basically say we're not going to get involved ourselves, but no-fly zone or lesser american boots on the ground. but if mitt romney had his way, we would lean much more forward toward arming the syrian opposition. once you give arms, you lose control, who knows whose handses they end up in. >> and by the way, as we said when we were talking about benghazi, talking about libya six months ago, who was the opposition? >> on the other hand, there was something morally wrong. a lot of people would say not getting involved yourselves, now is the number of deaths have gone up above 20,000, those are your choices. >> look what happened in lebanon. you go arming those kind of sectarian factions, lebanon is the backyard. the track record in that region is a nightmare, you would destabilize everything. >> i understand the risks, but then the moral question and the strategic question, both for the united states, is if you're not willing to arm because you don't want the arms to get into the

wrong hands, fair enough. what do you do? essentially you're reduced to the role -- these are terrible choices. >> they are terrible choices. >> andrea, if you exclude the sections on syria and perhaps two or three other sentences, in rereading the speech, it read like a speech that barack obama could have given. >> it read like a speech that mainstream republicans, foreign policy teams, not the more conservative, some of the others who have been advising him, as well. there's been a tug of war, i think as richard haass well knows among the advisers, and some of the more moderate. i think on syria the important nuance there was saying that it should be a pass through, that we should help our partners, the saudis, others in the region arm the syrians and not do it ourselves. earlier he had been. so he was dialing back on syria and saying that it should be us

helping our partners in the region. and that interestingly is not -- there are a number of democratic foreign policy experts who spoke to us yesterday who had been at the white house, this white house as well as the bush, bush and reagan white houses. take that chance because it is the pivotal moment and an opportunity to really get iran by getting assad. >> so, mike, we have heard this morning from politico that ann romney and tagg romney, great guy, by the way, starting to exert their influence and basically saying, hey, dad. move to the middle. we've seen you move to the middle on taxes saying, okay, i'm not going to cut taxes in a way that's going to raise the deficit. that's my rule. it's a hard, fast rule. he moved to the center on bipartisanship, on israel. i guess the question is, does that make him a more electable?

i think it does. or does that make him the etch-a-sketch candidate? what's your read? >> well, i think that in addition to ann romney and his sons, i think there is an extended romney family within the campaign. people who have been with him throughout his career in politics. dating back to when he was governor of massachusetts. and i think they have been clambering for mitt romney to be more mitt romney than this right-wing creation we saw during the primaries, and i think they probably had a family conference at which point they thought, let's stop, you know, you pretending to be someone you're not. you've been doing it for two years, you get the nomination. let's be mitt romney. does it make him more electable? absolutely. >> andrea, i know you will remember this because you were covering it. but i go back to 1987, i remember all of those nasty stories about george h.w. bush and remember then vice president bush was saying when i eat pork

grinds and when i'm driving around d.c., i listen to the country radio station and go out on the campaign trail and look goofy and you'd be like, stop it, you're such a dignified man, be yourself. he was himself, peggy noonan gave him the words to be himself at the convention and he ran with it after that. maybe we're seeing the same transformation with mitt romney who looks goofy when he's not being himself. but when he's more temperamentally moderate, he seems to be a much tighter fit. >> and don't forget that george herbert walker bush made key compromises with the budget and taxes which probably led to his defeat, which was probably the best governing decisions at the time, even though it went against a lot of his base. >> richard? >> absolutely. history has written and meacham's writing it. it was seen as something as a model for whoever is elected now will have to do. reach across party lines and

there'll have to be a comprehensive deal, dealing with taxes as well as entitlement cuts. what bush did was a real profile on courage. it was a classy thing. >> andrea mitchell, thank you so much. we'll see you at 1:00 eastern time. >> who do you have at 1:00? >> talking about benghazi, just back from libya. >> all right, andrea. thank you, up next, the "washington post's" eugene robinson joins the conversation. also, molly ringwald. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> morning to you, mika, on this tuesday. a lot of travel issues around the country today. it's not exactly warm either. it's kind of a murky weather pattern along the eastern sea board. clouds from boston down to d.c. there are a few showers too. sprinkles out there occasionally. things will improve for areas along the east coast. by the time we get to thursday, boston, temperatures don't warm up too much. but at least we're going to see the sun returning and that'll be the case all the way down the east coast.

otherwise, it's a very cold morning in the northern plains. the windchills are in the 20s in many areas and that cold air is going to sweep to minneapolis, des moines, st. louis, and chicago during the day today. the exception, if you're in oklahoma through texas and deep south, what a beautiful day it's going to be after a cool start, temperatures in the 80s. that's ideal fall weather conditions for you. and everyone on the west coast enjoying another dry day for you. look at that, they're getting ready to put the rink back up. it's chilly enough in new york city. you're watching "morning joe" on this tuesday. brewed by starbucks. t there.

t there. - one serving of cheese is the size of four dice. one serving of cereal, a baseball. and one serving of fruit, a tennis ball. - you know, both parties agree. our kids can be healthier... the more you know. ♪ here's what people are talking about. apparently after last week's debate, polls show obama trailing mitt romney by one point. oh, yeah. one point, or as it's also known, the thing obama failed to

make during last week's debate. huh? speaking of the election, you guys, the vice presidential debate is just three days away. both sides are busy getting ready and republican candidate paul ryan says he expects joe biden to come at him like a cannon ball. biden was like, there's going to be a pool there? i'm more of a belly flop guy, but i can -- and with us now from washington, pulitzer prize winning columnist, msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. i've got to ask you the big question, are you for the nats or for the orioles? >> i've got to be for the nats, although we're a mixed marriage. my wife was born in baltimore. >> oh. >> not an ill word can be said about the baltimore orioles in my house. >> yeah. >> nonetheless, i'm following the nats and cheering the nats. but, you know, the orioles are playing the yankees last night and beat them. you've got to root against the yankees, right? >> of course you do.

if you love -- well, i mean, only if you love america. >> yes, right. >> i do love america. >> you do love america. moving from baseball to politics. >> yes, let's talk about the vice presidential debate, shall we? it's thursday. both vice presidential candidates will be facing off and yesterday paul ryan told a detroit radio station that he is ready for biden to come after him. take a listen. >> i really think that because they had such a bad debate that joe is just going to come flying at us. and it seems pretty clear that their new strategy is basically just call us liars, to descend down into a mud pit and hopefully with enough mud slinging back and forth and distortion, people will get demoralized and they can win by default. sort of a choice of the lesser of two evils. >> all right. interesting strategy. except i think the problem with the first debate was that the president didn't actually point out when mitt romney wasn't telling the truth.

didn't call him a liar, he should've. >> all the people, and all of his friends in the media have said, it couldn't be that the president had a horrible performance, it had to be because he was so shocked because mitt romney lied. and if that's the cold comfort they want to take, gene. >> fine. >> if that's the comfort, mitt only won because he lied, that's fine, they'll lose the second debate, as well. >> but who said -- did somebody really say that? it was clear what happened, the president had an awful night and he's got -- >> well, sure. >> every op-ed i read this weekend basically said mitt won because he lied. >> no, he won because he was more aggressive. he was, you know, he took advantage of the openings that was given to both candidates. and the president didn't take advantage. the president had a terrible night. and that was the initial read of the debate. i think that's what happened. >> what does joe biden need to do to change the dynamics of

this race? >> well, i'm not sure about the cannon ball thing. you know. i'm a little concerned about the image of joe biden trying to kind of be like atlas and carry the world with him into that debate. if he thinks he has to hit a home run, i think that's the wrong attitude for him to take in. i think it's go in and be joe biden and be, you know, he's been in washington forever. he's extremely knowledgeable about all issues. and i think he should go in with the attitude with i know more than this guy and i can take him and but not to -- not to swing for the fences with every answer and try to come up with cute zingers, because that's just not a pretty picture. >> there's been all this discussion for the presidential debate. how much do debates matter? do debates change election?

people argued yes and some no. and we're at this moment, maybe there's something happening here. how important is the vice presidential debate? >> well, i think it's more important as a spectacle, to be honest. it's going to be great tv. the generational difference between these two people, the difference in tactics, and also joe biden, look, joe biden is close to bill clinton. they have the same ability to craft and distill. >> and laugh off. >> and to use humor and be very affable and land a punch that's concise, encapsulates a race and move on. and one line that joe biden used to say was bill clinton's advice on the whole context there in 2004, which i think plays out again in these debates. and joe biden will know about the strength of the delivery. he'll say he's right, as well. i think he'll find it easier to

sell the top of the ticket than trying to sell himself. if he tries to sell himself, he'll never finish a sentence in time. >> there's no doubt, gene, he's going to be talking about the man i've worked with for four years and i've seen him sweating blood, man. over knees numbers and i was there, man, and they made the decision to kill osama bin laden, it was tension city in that room. you can hear it right now. this is what joe biden is going to do. what paul ryan needs to do is quote joe biden. the past four years have been brutal for the middle class. i promise you a $1 trillion tax increase. he's giving paul ryan some material, as well. >> it's going to be pressing. and as you said, joe biden will sell barack obama, but paul ryan has to sell mitt romney. you can't really sell paul ryan, right? so he has to -- it's going to be interesting to see how well he does that.

i think we agree that joe biden will do his job, will go in and will explain all those crucial moments of the obama presidency and how things worked out and what a great guy he is. >> so joe biden, i agree will do his job. joe, do you think that paul ryan will be allowed to do his job? because i think the problem has been that from the moment he was chosen, they then were hiding his signature elements. >> well, paul ryan's not the president. and i think mitt romney said it clearly, i'm the president, paul ryan -- >> so he won't be allowed to do his job? >> no more than somebody you hire as a production assistant is going to tell you what to say on the air. >> well, i will say, he sounds really almost -- he chose his youth when he said mitt romney is the president, and therefore i believe. >> who is he? why was he chosen? because he has incredible, brave ideas. >> hold on. so --

>> at a time when we need to be considering these things. >> the whole world bashes chris christie for talking about himself instead of mitt romney, and now we're going to bash paul ryan for talking about -- >> why would paul ryan -- >> because he's a conservative, a fiscal hawk, he shapes mitt romney, the choice, mike, in my mind shapes mitt romney, a guy who is serious about cutting spending, about taking -- >> here's a question, though. how good will paul ryan, the conservative be, at selling the new sort of centrist mitt romney? >> right. >> and that's where i think he has trouble. >> that will be the tension involved when ryan speaks. >> so it's a great question. and mike, paul ryan is a guy unlike all of these other candidates that has -- well, actually biden wins, you know, swing states. but paul ryan wins him the biggest of swing districts where

bill clinton won his district. and barack obama won his district. i mean, paul ryan, i know this comes as a shock to a lot of us in the national media, but paul ryan knows how to talk to swing voters better than anybody else because his livelihood depends on it every two years. >> well, that is true. but if joe biden was sitting with us here this morning, he would be the first to say very few people vote for the vice president. they're going to vote for the united states. we know what their jobs are. we know what ryan's job is, joe biden's job is. joe biden has a couple of elements to him, though, that make him, perhaps, better suited for a debate than the president of the united states. in that he's used to it standing on the senate floor for 30, 35 years, he's good at it. really good at it. and the other similar aspect similar to paul ryan, joe biden goes home to wilmington nearly every weekend. you can find him in the home

depot on a saturday morning. he sort of gets even though he's vice president of the united states what it's like to live a life. >> what a huge difference that makes too. >> there's that, plus biden has an interesting background. all those years in senate judiciary. senate foreign relation committee. it's a big range. and it's generational. either biden looks like more experience or ryan looks like the fresh, younger guy. i don't know which way it breaks. >> i'm just so nervous because joe biden's a great debater and paul ryan, i don't know if he'll be able to find the podium. >> oh, come on. >> very good. >> can i get into the act? can i lower the expectations even more? you know, paul ryan, i don't know. i'm going to pray for him. i'm going to get my rosary beads out and i'm not catholic. you've got to feel sorry for him. have i lowered the expectations enough? >> he's screwed. okay.

eugene, thank you. >> dan, i'm sorry, southeast doing it again. >> your column's online at the washingtonpost.com. thank you very much. >> thank you, gene. go senators. >> all right. coming up, former president of colombia aribe will be joining us onset when we come back. meet the 5-passenger ford c-max hybrid. when you're carrying a lot of weight, c-max has a nice little trait, you see, c-max helps you load your freight, with its foot-activated lift gate. but that's not all you'll see, cause c-max also beats prius v, with better mpg. say hi to the all-new 47 combined mpg c-max hybrid.

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still ahead, nbc news director political director chuck todd joins us. and up next, hugo chavez' victory in the elections. what does it mean for the region and the united states? alvaro uribe joins us next on "morning joe." [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.

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and it's working. i'm not hungry. i'm just losing weight eating real food in the real world. and it feels pretty awesome. [ female announcer ] join now for free. hurry offer ends october 20th. weight watchers. because it works. all right, it's 40 past the hour. live look at the white house. chuck todd, by the way, will be joining us later to break down the latest polls that show a tightening in the presidential race. he'll have the very latest analysis on that straight ahead on "morning joe." but joining us now, former

two-term president of colombia, alvaro uribe now out with a memoir about his presidency entitled "no lost causes." it's an honor to have you in the studio. >> it's an honor for me. >> well, thank you. for the peace talks between the government and the rebels starting in a few weeks, let's start there. we'll broaden that to venezuela and others, as well. why do they worry you? >> everyone in colombia wants peace, i want peace. watching, waiting. but i disagree with peace talks in the middle of violence. and i do not agree with peace agreements with impunity. i cannot understand why our government has -- the possibility for the members to be politically electable even though they have committed great

crimes. such as atrocities. >> explain to our viewers the level of violence that's being seen right now. and then i'd like to press you further on how then you curb that if you can't talk to the other side. >> the current administration in colombia improved a lot. we work with security, with democratic values, at the same time investment in our country. 53,000 members of the group mobilize -- the administration. without impunity, and at the same time, we are advance with the social policy to prevent the youngster from being recruited from terrorist groups. >> richard haass? >> can we turn to one of your neighbors for a second. i understand internally you want

to keep the pressure on the farc and the groups. you had the election of hugo chavez by a surprisingly wide majority. what is your sense of why he did so well? and more important, what should the outside world do? what should colombia be doing? what should the united states be doing? >> in my opinion, chavez is a cuban costume, with the disguise of elections. he is creating a new coalition. in venezuela with all the atrocities, the rule of law. my main disagreement with chavez is because he's been an accomplice of the colombia terrorist groups and i disagree with giving the opportunity to show up while everyone knows in colombia that chavez has been an accomplice here of terrorist groups.

>> can i ask one other question? the kind of pressure you put on the terrorists in colombia, some americans are saying we need to do that in mexico, which is a country now threatened by drug cartels violence. what do you think about? could the colombian model work for mexico. the president of mexico has done very well. i am confident that the new president will commit himself. we call that determination. the new president recently. >> the book is "no lost causes," president alvaro uribe, thank you very much. it was an honor to have you on the show this morning. ahead this morning, a personal and revealing look back at reagan's west coast white house by president reagan's daughter. and next, molly ringwald joins the table. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪

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molly ringwald, she was the face of many of the coming of age movies of the 1980s directed by john hughes. and with the tivo premiere dvr,

you can watch molly and the rest of the so-called brat pack in a moment's notice, including the 1980s classic "the breakfast club." nobody finds your entertainment like tivo. >> now, don't give me that pouty look of yours. you can eat your carrots when you get motor home. >> that's it? you don't have anything else to say to me today? >> what would you like me to say, sam? come on now, honey, you're going to miss the bus. have a good day. >> i can't believe this. they [ bleep ] forgot my birthday. >> that was a scene from the 1984 classic "sixteen candles." and joining us now, the star of those classic '80s movies, actress molly ringwald, out with a new collection of fictional essays entitled "when it happens to you," a novel in stories. good to have you on the show. >> thank you for having me. >> well, willie's already

creeping her out. >> yeah, i know. >> what's that? >> seriously, we're very sorry about that. >> many of us came of age during -- >> okay. >> sorry, molly. >> full disclosure -- >> he's an now how far is that to silt down and maker it up. >> the harders thing about it i have to say is because i have another job and i also have three children, the thick for me was actually finding the time to do it. but actually writing fiction -- >> do you do it in the morning? >> i do it all day whenever i get the time. i which in film sets, i write in writers rooms. but actually writing fiction has been very freeing.

all my life i've been focused on characters and this book is character driven. >> what's the narrative or stream that ties the stories together. >> the general theme is betrayal which is what i was really interested in because of the universality of it. i don't think you can meet someone who hasn't betrayed someone, been betrayed. so it's very rich, rich subject matter. every story is connected somehow even though the characters are different. your life and career is such an interesting study because the mid 1980s, you're the biggest superstar there is. then you kind of took yourself out of fame. was that a rejection of high

school for you? or was that -- >> i think vs rejecting hollywood. i don't think i was aware of it at the time. i felt like i had been working and filming since i was 13 years old and i almost became an adult at a pretty young age because in order to do those movies, you can't really be a real kid. so i felt like my 20s were sort of living my teen years, applied to go to college and i was all set to go to paris. and there was no way i could leave. i said this is going to be my college. >> you could have gone on to be a hollywood kid and you decided you wanted an education and live in paris. >> outside the box. i have just tried to listen -- as you severe campbell would

say, i tried to follow my bliss and that just seemed like the time to do it. i hoped later i would have kids and you can't do the same things when you have a family. >> you know, when i was growing up, i was born in '63 and also sort of the same age, i would alwaysook at films like "the graduate" and say why didn't our generation have movies that defined our time. and then by the time the '80s end, john hughes was the man. i remember reading that, a guy that really sort of different provide the sound track and provided the movies that defined sort of the sfrang times that the '80s where are.

talk about john hughes. >> he defined our generation, but really look at the way he has defined generations afterwards. i have people coming up to me in their 30s, their 20s and even many their teens and they sag nose movies spoke to them. >> the catcher and the rye, i feltlike it was written for me, it was he understood what i felt, i got his sense of humor and that's what john hughes has done. >> what was he like to work

with? >> john hughes? john was like the sixth member of "the breakfast club." >> was he like a kid? >> he was, he was a grown up but when he was on set with ugh, he was like one of us. >> that is so cool. >> "when it happens to you." we could talk about it all day. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf.

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earlier today the medical team received the nobel prize for reviving the mitt romney campaign. brought it back to live. >> good morning, it's 8:00 on the east coast, 5:00 p.m. on the west coast. taking a live look at new york

city. back with us on set, we have mike barnicle and richard haass. i want to show you new polls new pew research shows that prom any has 49% and obama has 45%. there is niews for the romney campaign in michigan, president obama was leading by four points last month. after the debate, the governor has the lead. the president had a 66 to 38

advantage with republican voters. >> here you have mitt romney, getting absolutely pounded, the gender gap, fatal for almost any reference candidate, now it's tied 47-47. if you are a mom, you are a wife, you are a working woman, explain those numbers. >> that was taken after the debate? >> i think that speaks for itself, women or men liked mitt romney's performance, whether they agree with him or not, i think it made a difference. more difference than perhaps the obama campaign predicted. >> you look also at the michigan number. mike barnicle, i have never put michigan as a swing state, even since the 1990s. you can have mitt romney down ten points a month ago, after the debate, he's down, it's within the margin of error, this

is supposed to be the state where the grand experiment of the auto bailout took place and there's no way mitt romney can win that state. it's basically tied right now. and again weather michigan ends up in his column ofnot. but we have to be sure that this shift is taking place in a lot of other states. >> and it forces the obama campaign to allocate resources to places like michigan which they probably thought they had safely in hand two weeks ago. but the poll numbers on women are really interesting. most of the us in the news business, very often underestimate the impact of the economy of women on the voting group. >> you're always talking about abortion and a lot of other social issues.

>> yes. >> and it's the same thing too with a lot of gay voters, they say, listen, i care about gay marriage, you know what i care about more? getting a job, my partner getting a job, we can't forget that in this sort of hot house where we talk about all of these social issues that the media love talking about -- >> you're making an argument that more women will get jobs under mitt romney. but that's not the case. >> working women, cost of health care, the rising cogs of health care, the rising cost of groceries, the rising cost of just living. women to- >> my point was mika, women care about jobs first for the most part, most women do, most women care more about putting foot on their kids tables, i if they're single moms get good jobs so

they can afford to second their children to even community college or an ivy league school. we in the media, we try to overanalyze this too much and at the end of the day, for most voters, whether you're talking about women or men or gay voters or straight voters, they share the same concerns for the most part. >> yes, they do, thank you, yes, they do. i'm serious, i don't disagree. i'm dead serious. all i'm frying to do is get along here. >> it makes sense that women are in control of the economy, or perhaps even in control of the economy. and to me, these numbers are surprising and concerning, because if it is a rut of the debate, it is to me, in my opinion, a response to a stylistic win. >> you understand, though, mika, why other voters, barack obama

looked like a weak leader. >> but if you're going doik ma the argument for women voters, i think this president has done more for women than romney will even if he hooz two terms. . >> obama never talked be the supreme court, he never talked about todd akin. so the issues brought that role out to the fore where we're simply look -- so it is not, what it also shows by the way is all these people who say debates don't matter, they were dead wrong. >> they just might, we'll see. >> we can't underline the point too much that we always try to vulcanize people, i'm not saying that women don't-her republican

friends were very concerned about the rat kl direction that the republican party seem to be taking in the primaries. but, and with gay voters, i'm not saying that gay voters don't care about marriage ekwauqualite oversimply it so much. if president obama looks weak in the debate, as most people say they dovmt i said last week, a rising tied lifts all votes. as i said last week before the performance, that a rising tied has lifted all boats 689. >> but that is a huge -- 18 points off one debate performance is -- it's almost not to be believed, it's to bick.

latinos and women. mitt romney has no chachbs. he closed 18 points in one debate. i would be surprised. >> i never thought tftsz like 10or 11 points, i don't think it's tied now either, i think it's maybe four or five. again just looking at all the poll? may be an outlier on all women. >> first of all in michigan, that was a month ago, mitt romney pulled out of michigan. there were no ads running there, so if he closed the gap like that, he did it on his own. also 78% of independents in that pew survey thought mitt romney won the debate so that might have dg something to do with the number and a campaign for mitt romney, this is a loser, we're not going to touch this, we're move on to 2016. now 6% of republicans say they're enthusiastic about their candidate. that's up 15 points since the

last survey. >> your brought this up last weekend, even before the debate, you brought up what chuck todd was talking about among the press. >> they're engaged. >> and chuck todd is now saying from looking at the nbc numbers unless the president kicks it into gear, i do want to say, just as a caveat, let's look at t the gallup daily tracking poll, it shows the president actually up business 5 points, that's among registered voters, those are not people who are likely to vote. the likely voters are the pew. the more likely you are to vote, at least today, at least the

more likely you have to vote for mitt romney. the more you expand that out. because for people just tuning into this election, you've got likely voters, the most likely to vote, you've got registered voters who are in the middle and you have polls of americans and that 's basically drag anybody off the street and ask them a question. >> voters in iowa, a day after delivering what his campaign called ed ed a major foreign po debate. romney hit a wide range of hot button issues from the arab world, from the civil war in syria, so the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. the issue of iran's program was woven throughout much of the speech. the republican candidate suggesting he would take a

harder line to ensure that tehran does not -- >> i pit the leaders of iran on notice that the united states whether reventd them from developing a newark clear weapon. i will restore the pempl innocence of aircraft carrier task forces in both the mediterranean and the gulf. and i'll working with the military. there are nuclear purr suit will not be tolerated. >> i feel like he was first of all making a false accusation about the present policy that the president is placing onner ran and trying to turn the argument around, a policy that quite frankly he was describing the same thing, was he not, that we're already doing? >> with one important exception,

when he talking about nuclear iran getting nuclear we haves cape blt. so essentially what he oog sikt success he would draw the red line short soilt of that. a slightly less tolerance of iran getting nuclear weapons. >> he also subjected that we're not doing much, we meaning the obama administration, with extremely stiff -- >> i thought he was unfair, under the president's policy on sanctions is quite extraordinarily. i have written several books on sanctions and edited them. even though they're kicking in

economically and you're right where we don't know is what impact that will have on the iranian nuclear program. that remains to be seen. >> what else can be done? i agree with mitt romney, i'm glad it's a centerpiece. iran, i have always believed is the most dangerous country in the world. they have been a piece of international terrorism since 1979. they only exert -- what else can a president romney do to tighten the vice? >> not much more on sanctions. more clandestine stuff. >> would a closer alliance with israel, because we hear about it a lot, if the iranians understood that we had a

president that stood shoulder to shoulder with israel, would that not -- >> i would test the iranians, i would make them a diplomatic offer, here's what we're prepared to live with, here's what we're going to allow you to have. >> hasn't the president tried that? >> do it publicly, the question, the public and iran is unhappy. they're trying to close down any currency market. inflation is skyrocketing in iran. put more pressure on them publicly, align yourself more with the opposition. >> we cannot trust the iranians, they have made fools out of every american president since 1986. >> here's what you can have and by the way, we need inspections

and we need intrusive inspections, unless you give us confidence that you're not cheating, so you put it on the table. if you accept the deal, you're going to get real economic help and if you don't, you won't. >> there are of course moderates in iran, half of the country is westernized, highly educated. they have got an extraordinary history. they're moderates, but they don't run the county. on october 9, 2012, who runs iran? >> in the intelligence business iran is right up there with north korea as one of the hardest targets to understand. >> he's a supreme leader. >> you've got the revolutionary

guard. you've got several power centers. the answer is we don't really know. >> when we come back, chuck todd joins the conversation. inside reagan's west coast white house, the president's daughter patty davis takes a nostalgic visit to the family's private hideout in california. >> mika, what you and bill do after air, stays off air. bill, please, just talk weather. >> i thought that was between us. well, good morning, everyone, here's what we're dealing with this morning, amazing with the low clouds and the drizzle. we don't have airport delays only at newark. the cloud ceiling isn't all that low, but it is kinds of a gloomy

day, trying to push now through hartford and eventually up toward boston. it's a beautiful tuesday in the great lakes, it's also a cold start in the northern plains, look at the windchills this morning, all the way to billings, it feels like a winter morning out there, it's going to be cloudy and cool throughout much of the week throughout much of the country. you're waking up to a beautiful day from texas all the way to arizona. and on the west coast, you're looking good, but things are about to change a little bit. if you're joining us in los angeles, you may actually have some showers in your forecast, it's been a majorly dry period of weather the west coast needs a little bit of wet weather, haven't had much in a long time. we'll leave you with a shot, you can see those clouds in the northern portions of manhattan.

all you moms and kids out there, oscar's hiding out in his trash can, we're cracking down

on out. romney's plan is to let wall street run wild again and crack down on "sesame street." >> one man has the guts to speak his name. big bird, big bird, big bird. >> it's me, big bird. >> big, yellow, a menace to our committee, mitt romney knows it's not wall street you have to worry about, it's "sesame street." >> mitt romney, taking on our enemies no matter where they nest. >> all right, what do you think, willie? very good, right now washington nbc. a miami morning fan. chuck, two steps forward, one step back.

>> if they could catch some footballs it might have been a different game. but if my aunt had a pair of you know whats, she would be my uncle. >> woulda, coulda, shoulda. >> so let's talk about their new setup polls out, we have got the pepw poll that shows, we have got a michigan poll that shows beautiful a dead heat, a lot of movement, and we have a gender gap disappearing from being almost 20 points in the pew poll to being break even. i think you're probably like me, if you look at enough of these polls, i don't think it's like break even now, but probably

pretty close, a rising tide lifts all boats. >> you think about mitt romney, he never got a borns when he wrapped up the nomination of the primaries. never got a bounce really after the primaries. never got a bounce after the convention. he got a bounce after the debate. remember barack obama got a bounce in the last couple of weeks, you get more people in the party wanting to self-idahoify. this is what it looks like. v the question is number one can romney sustain it and number two, when is the obama campaign going to stop talking about the debate? one thing that gripes me about the big bird ad, which by the way isn't really airing anywhere, they have not put it any of their battleground states, this is national cable, which means we put it out there

hoping people will play it over and over because it's a good snarky conversation. they cannot seem to turn the page from their debate. we keep talking about it, we're now up to five days, last wednesday, we're almost a week now and they seem to still be wanting to talk about that debate and any conversation about that debate i assume helps mitt romney. see i'm getting kind of curious about it. >> mika was talking about before the debate, republicans were even more likely to vote than democrats, i know you're not a fan of daily tracking polls like gallups, but in the gallup tracking poll you actually have president obama with a five point lead, but that's registered voters, as you narrow

the field from likely voters to register voteders, the challenge seems to be going mitt romney's way. >> there are real gaps here, those numbers i went through on meet the press were predebate numbers. when you cast a vote, you can cast it enthusiastically or unenthusiastically, and it counts the same, that's what a democratic will tell me. that's true, but enthusiasm also means that will move a turnout number a point or two, your total turn out for your side. let's look at the president's fans, he's actually increased his a he's going to get more percentage wise of the hispanic vote than any president in history, more than he got four

years ago, but if turnover among hispanics is even a point at all, he may win a 70-30, instead of 65-35. if hispanic turnout is down -- there's an advantage right now among partisan republicans in enthusiasm. >> hey, chuck, you talked to the same people in washington and new york that we talked to about these campaigns, one week ago. the day before that debate, there was doom and gloom on the republican side. there was a crossroads, are they just going to go to congressional races, people were essentially writing the post mortem for mitt romney. is this all, now you have hard data that backs it up. is this all because of one question bait performance?

or is there something else going on. >> there was always going to be some natural tightening, but the debate did sort of jump start, i talked to some republican, the folks another running some of these republican superpacks and there was some money that they were waiting for to come in that they hads been waiting for to come in. >> there are head shot guys that were giving obama lots of money, big contributors, this week they were switching camps. >> they're hedge funds guys for a reason. there are some people that do that. no, it's true. >> by the way, it's a big, big obama supporters who said after this debate and it will be in the papers a week from now, they just threw up their hands and said i give up. >> there's still a lot of turns

in this campaign and it could turn again, but what this debates guaranteed now is that there isn't going to be, i mean there was real fire among republicans of a collapse that was going to affect the ballot. there was real talk about before that first debate that democrats could actually pick up a senate seat and net a new senate seat, and expand their advantage in the u.s. senate. there's none of that talk now, now you're starting really this early vote process, right where republican democrats are ahead -- now you're looking at, this is going to be a, to put i back into football terms, a field goal campaign the entire way down and that does help republicans down the ballot, it means they will pick up senate seats, and they're not going to lose as many house seats as maybe they worried about predebate. >> giving the obama campaign or

the inability to let the debate go in terms of the dialogue, what do you hear about the cold hand of fear grabbing chicago? >> well, it is. and it's funny, look, whenever there's a bad moment in a campaign, then suddenly fingers begin pointing, so then there is what's going on with debate prep, how come that didn't go well, that's just naturally someone that was part of it not wanting to take full blame. so there it's a little bit of that. i think you're going to see internally that nothing's changed. but i'm hearing chatter that maybe some people from the last debate are going to at least get involved in the debate prep process. he will bring in some of these sharpest communicators to do that. >> and of course as i said to my friends in the obama

administration, every administration as many seasons, every campaign has many seasons, last week, a lot of people were saying this campaign was over, next week, they may say it's over the other way. 2004, george w. bush had a horrific debate. i would say even worse performance that barack obama did this year, about a week later, dick cheney debated john edwards. dick chainachina -- dick cheneyd to be a grownup. >> if joe biden turns in a bad performan performance, it could be what happened in '04.

we're all looking at that debate saying who gets the upper hand in the argument, real voters look at the vice president lt scandals saying who could be president? where you've got dick chain and john edwards as a comparison, who looks more presidential? whatever you think about their individual policies, who could step up and be the president, and i just think in that dynamic, some of that generational play is going to be for paul ryan and joe biden, whatever you think about paul ryan, is he a heart beat away from the president. and joe biden maybe filling those shoes there. could be gain shifting on both sides. >> and the way the debate's set up, it's going to be at a table, that's seated, i would say that's better for biden, when he's at a podium, he's more

likely to be hotter with his mike. that was good for dick cheney, remember that was a seated debate. and richard brings up a good point. benson-quail, cheney-edwards. the generational stuff in a debate, there might be something to this on the bp front and it's something -- it's something that i think -- there are some republicans a little bit concerned of how's ryan going to look on that, that's the biggest stage of his life ever for him. >> so, chuck, let's goinssip rit now. i'm hear over the weekends from democratic leaders in colorado, in florida, about sbempbl internal -- there has been in

these swing states a significant enough shift to put romney ahead. that's the figrst request. >> we weren't black and did frk lrk ork vrk a,er once in a wheem my fl oova actings up. we're goc to be in aim three of these states as you recall i was talk at pollsters on both sides on this question. they scht that the first movement you would see would be florida, colorado, virginia, nevada, those have been sort of the four closest states, so that's where things have you been the most volatile, where the plts locked in the way he locked in. the bigger question is what does ohio look like?

has it gone from 8-4? the biggest shift i saw geographically, to -- >> you talk about nevada, you talk about the i would be stunned if that didn't shift offense this week. but we'll see. >> all right flova. >> did you ever try the flova nasal spray. there's something wrong in there.

coming up next, a personal look back at the california ranch that had become president reagan's western white house. we'll be right back.

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get them over who are, man, i want to ask david crosby about -- >> everything.

>> about everything. >> what a ride. it's been amazing, what a ride. >> thank you. >> so i can't talk about sports, i can't talk about music, i'll talk about the things i love. >> how are you? >> i'm good. >> all right, let's go to the salt lake tribune, utah has removed about 76,000 voters from its rolls. most counties are clearing inactive voters. >> they're trying to clean it up. >> how many people live there. >> 75,000. >> they're trying to clean it up. >> it's a train wreck. >> you know what you are? just justin bieber mid song. >> coming up next, greek protesters, i know you were asking this morning, what's

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mind games with 72. that was up, 71, maybe, 71. led zeppelin fans cale and tell us. >> when you say you want a revolution. >> i've got my. >> what's happening in grease. >> i was in athens for about a week in 2009. when i was there, they were blaming the germans for stealing their gold in world war 2. i'm not kidding you, this goes back a long way.

>> they stole your gold, so we're not going to work in the post war era. >> let me push back on this to what you said about the germans just cut them off, here's why the germans can't just do that. let's say you loan $100,000 to an uncle, and he didn't pay you bark, so you -- the german banks will get slammed, that's why they're in this disposition, there's no easy --. >> we have to go. >> no, actually this is the trump effect. donald trump goes $9 billion down. >> 40% unemployment among 25-year-old men, not a good way

for social peace? >> you know why that happened? because the germans stole the greek's gold like 65 years ago. >> got to blame somebody. >> up next, we have got the editor of town and country magazine who's here with the cover story on president reagan's western white house. ah. fire bad! just have to fire roast these tomatoes. this is going to give you a head start on your dinner. that seems easier [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. five delicious cooking sauces you combine with fresh ingredients to make amazing home-cooked meals.

town and country magazine takes a look at reagan's west coast ranch. so are you sober? everything good? >> it's a little early for me. >> let's talk about reagan's ranch. >> i think what's kind of amazing about nailg is that we all know you need the fairy dust, everybody wants it right now, everybody wants to have some kind of reagan connection whether you're a democrat or learn. and mitt romney and newt

gingrich. >> now you' ee're saying that p davis is saying it too. >> we're all searching for who the man really was. when she came to us and said i want to go back to the ranch and revisit it and try to find traces of my father. i think it's a lovely, moving insightful piece that in some ways reminds you of things you may have forgotten. the unanimous who liked to wear a haines t-shirt walking around an 1,800 square feet house. he put in very inexpensive things. he drove an old jeep. >> i don't want to sound generational, that sounds just like your dad and your mom.

>> they just installlinoleum is. out goes way down. >> i look at your pockets square, paisley possibilities. that's a waspy thing to do. >> i don't say i was a wasp, but this is what waspy people do, they save their money and don't spend it. >> but there's also a reagan -- the reagan party debate really mattered, it kind of changed the game for him. excuse me for using that entire phrase. that ended up kind of ushering him into the white house, there's lots of what romney says

that sounds a lot like reagan, the laugher curve. you remember that? >> can't forget art. >> it's fun. >> mika, you wanted to talk about -- and actually jay doesn't actually read his magazine, but if he did, he could talk about other stories. >> really quickly, i thought that the other interesting article that's featured on the cover is christopher reeves' kids now. >> it's a remarkable story we all remember what happened. the kids are all grown. here these kids are fully grown now and remarkable, interesting people and incredible looking like their father, and great to be able to do that. >> another good one, both articles.

>> you come there the fancy part of dallas, don't you? >> san antonio? >> the article's in the new issue of town and country on newsstands now. up next, if anything did we learn today? by bright eyes

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hi, guys, welcome back to "morning joe," this is part of the show that the kids like to call what we learned today. i can figure out what i learned today. jay doesn't read his own magazine. i love him so much, he's going to become a regular on "morning joe." >> you have been recalled as u.s. ambassador to greece. >> what do they say? >> i'm not even going to tell you what barnacle said at the break about what you have done to them. what did you learn? >> i learned that jay's 1973 down on the river walk gave him a pocket handker